Hardworking Isabelle Cook has a serious problem. Her family farm, site of Tilikum’s Christmas Village, is in trouble. Big trouble. And worst of all? The man trying to buy it is none other than the grumpiest, grinchiest man of them all—Elias Stoneheart.

Love isn't on my mind when I sign up for the yearly Sinners Retreat, but a chance meeting at the airport changes everything. We click right away, and my bond with Kindra only deepens when we discover our mutual love for the most macabre hobbies. But then she brings up her brother's unsolved murder and her real reason for being here—to find his killer. That's when my past finally catches up with me, and I'm faced with an impossible choice.

"Give me a second chance, babe . . . and I'll blow your mind." Monroe doesn't know why she answers the text that's obviously meant for someone else. Or why she keeps answering. Maybe it's because she's all alone in a big city and in desperate need of a lifeline. Or maybe it's because each exchange leaves her intrigued and more than a little turned on.

When Connor Finch insists his one-time Tinder match Shae comes to his dad's house for Thanksgiving with her two daughters, it's because he refuses to let them be alone on her first holiday post-divorce. When she arrives at the Christmas tree farm and ranch he grew up on, she meets his father—the crazy tall, built, golden retriever cowboy who tells her girls all about the magic of the stupid elf on a shelf.

I can’t remember anymore if my grandfather’s eyes were blue or green, but I’ll never forget the way they wrinkled at the corners when he laughed at one of his own jokes. Or the way they sparkled with mischief when he told me tales about the magical creatures that dwelled in the forest behind his humble Irish sheep farm. As a child, I believed every fantastical word. But when he warned me about the mute boy who also lurked in those woods, the one the priest had declared to be the spawn of Satan himself, I refused to listen.